Amtrak says it set another record over Thanksgiving

Amtrak said it carried a record 737,537 passengers during the Thanksgiving travel period, up 1.9 percent from the previous record set last year. Ticket revenues climbed to $56.1 million, up 8.4 percent from last year.

And Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, was Amtrak’s busiest in history, the railroad said, as it carried 140,691 people that day.

The passenger railroad said it accomplished this despite superstorm Sandy, which snarled rail traffic for nearly a week at the beginning of November.

“Amtrak is a key element of the regional response to Sandy and it was critical for us to restore service and operate our full and expanded schedule to connect families for the holiday — and with the help of our commuter partners we did it,” said Joe Boardman, Amtrak’s president and CEO.